Personal life and education

Amjad Khan
was born in Hyderabad to Muslim parents. He
was the son of legendary actor Jayant. He was
the brother of fellow actor Imtiaz Khan
and Inayat Khan who only acted in one film. In 1957, he was cast in
the movie Ab Dili Dur Nahin, as a child artist.
His family
hails from Ghazni, Afghanistan.

Khan did
schooling at St Theresa's High School, Bandra. He
attended R D National College,
Bandra and was the General Secretary - the highest elected student
body representative. He had already gained a reputation of being a
heavyweight "dada" and was feared and respected.

In 1972, he married Sheila Khan, and the following year, she gave
birth to their first child, Shadaab
Khan, who acted in a few films. He also had a daughter Ahlam
Khan and another son Seemaab
Khan.

Career

Before Amjad came to films he was a theatre actor. His first film
was as a child artist at the age of 17 in the film Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (1957). He had
assisted K.Asif in
the film Love and God in the
late 1960s and had also made a brief appearance in the film which
would have been his official film debut. But the film was left
incomplete after K.Asif's death in 1971 and it ended up releasing in
1986. In 1973 he made his debut in Hindustan Ki Kasam.

Amjad Khan along with Amitabh
Bachchan, Dharmendra Deol and Sanjeev Kumar at the sets of
Sholay (1975).

The role of Gabbar, the dreaded Chambal
dacoit, remains Amjad Khan's most powerful and memorable
performance.

In 1975 he was offered the role of a dacoit Gabbar Singh for the
film Sholay (meaning
flames) by Salim who was one of
the film's writers. For his preparation for the role Amjad read
Abhishapth Chambal, a book on Chambal dacoits written by Taroon Kumar Bhaduri (actress Jaya Bhaduri's father). Amjad shot to stardom
with the movie. His portrayal of Gabbar Singh is considered by many
to be the first depiction of pure evil on the screen in Indian Cinema; a totally evil character who
doesn't make excuses for its evil. "Arre O' Sambha, Kitne
Aadmi The"— is one of the most popular line of Bollywood
mouthed.

The movie Sholay is one of the all-time blockbuster movies
in India and one of the highest earners, and although the movie had
a cast of superstars including Amitabh
Bachchan and Dharmendra the most
memorable character was considered to be that of Gabbar Singh.
Amjad Khan later appeared in advertisements as Gabbar Singh
endorsing Parle-G biscuits, and it was the first incidence of a
villain being used to sell a popular product.

After the success of Sholay Khan continued to play villain
roles in many subsequent Hindi films in the 1970s, 1980s and early
1990s - superseding, in terms of popularity and demand, the earlier
Indian actor, Ajit - portraying more
sophisticated and urbane criminal bosses, mastermind of bank
robberies, murders and conspiracies to seize power. He often acted
as villain opposite Amitabh
Bachchan as the hero.

He also ventured into directing for a brief period in the 1980s
directing and also starring in Chor
Police (1983) and Ameer Aadmi Gareeb Aadmi
(1985) but both films failed to do well at the box office.

Amjad was also the President of the Actor's GUILD association. As
mentioned earlier, he had been a leader in college and was
respected in the film industry too. He would intervene and
negotiate disputes between actors and directors/producers. There
was one such dispute in which Dimple Kapadia had agreed to play a
role of a mother in a movie and later backed down. The entire film
producer community tried to boycott her. Amjad did intervene on
behalf of the actor's guild.

Death

In 1976, he had met with a near fatal accident on the Bombay-Goa
road, when he drove his car into a tree while trying to avoid a
boulder. The drugs administered to him for treatment caused a
serious weight problem for the rest of his life. As a result of his
increasing weight he died in 1992 after suffering from a heart failure at the age of 51.

Several of the films he had completed when he was alive were
released after his death - right until 1996.

His funeral procession passed from his house in Pali Hill to the
Muslim Burial in Bandra East. All major movie stars at that time
attended and could be seen walking through the narrow lanes of
Bandra.